Reading as your Summer Climate Action

A high level of CO2 in our atmosphere is responsible for the human-caused climate crisis manifested this month by dangerous heat waves in Saudi Arabia, the Eastern US, Greece, Turkey and other countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East, with a staggering number of heat related deaths of pilgrims in Mecca.

A massive heat wave in India is also the opening chapter of The Ministry for the Future a climate fiction, or “cli-fi”, novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2020. This novel is an amazing eye opener on the direction of our planet, and of one of its possible futures. It’s one of my favorite books on the topic as it follows a number of characters and explores many aspects touched by climate change: economics, finance, geopolitics, air transportation, human rights, geo-engineering and more. It also has a good ending of sorts. I highly recommend it. (And if reading is not your thing, you will enjoy listening to My Climate Journey’s podcast where Cody Simms of MCJ Collective interviews Robinson about the book).

The Ministry for the Future is also included in a very complete summer reading list by Satowa Kinoshita, a friend working in climate investment and a member of my first All We Can Save book circle (January-April 2021). Kinoshita lists most climate books I recommend to friends, clients or students, including All We Can Save, Braiding Sweetgrass, Speed and Scale, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Richard Power’s The Overstory, all texts that have influenced me deeply in my climate journey, climate coaching and own writings on the topic. I include her substack post below. She lists other books that I have yet to discover such as Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma or Cities for People. There is a book for every one in her list. Thank you Satowa!